1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tracking technology, and more particularly relates to the tracking of individuals using voice verification technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
In various situations, it is desirable to track the location of an individual so as enforce a restriction on the individual's movement. Examples include individuals under house arrest, hospitalized individuals, individuals under medical orders restricting movement and children being cared by others. In these instances it is desirable to monitor the location of the individual so as to determine whether the individual is complying with the restriction on movement imposed on him or her. Enforcing such a restriction using a human overseer can be expensive and time consuming. Thus, various technological approaches to this problem have arisen.
One approach to this problem includes the use of Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) units to track the individual's location. External RFID units worn by the individual, however, can be tampered with and are not highly reliable. RFID units internal to an individual could be more reliable, but installation of such a unit would be intrusive to the individual and can be illegal. Further, RFID units are subject to radio interference caused by buildings, objects and radio frequency signals. Lastly, RFID units can be damaged by trauma, sudden movements, water and other precipitation, thereby affecting its reliability.
Another approach to the problem of tracking the location of individuals involves the use of cameras placed at the location of the individual so as to verify that the presence of the individual at the location. Conventional camera-based tracking of individuals, however, also requires human intervention, which can be costly. Furthermore, cameras are vulnerable to circumvention using fake photographic effects.
Therefore, a need arises for a more efficient method for tracking the location of individuals and more particularly for an automated, low-cost solution to monitoring an individual.